The Voodoo Bell

Part 13: Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Memories

I climbed the stairs two at a time, just trying to catch up with Reed. Our souls? What was going on with our souls? Did they escape or something?

When I reached the main floor, still clutching at the ruminants of my demolished dress, he was nowhere to be found. I searched and searched, asking every servant that I passed if they had seen him. Finally, I saw a bit of sun coming through one of the third floor windows, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to find him until it was dark again. Wearily, I went back to my room, my body completely exhausted from the trauma of the evening. I climbed into my bed and I slept.

When I woke, it was complete darkness in my room and I rubbed at my eyes to clear away the fog of dreams. When my brain finally woke itself, I rocketed up from between the sheets and bounded for the closet. I threw on a pair of sweats and a plain thermal top, not even checking to make sure they matched before I sped out the door.

He was waiting for me. I saw him at the bottom of the steps, his eyes locked on me as I came down each one slowly, trying to read the expression on his face. So much emotion was there. Pain, sadness, dread were all present.

"Come with me", he said without greeting as he turned and walked down the hall to a deserted room that would offer up some privacy.

I had never been in this room, the door normally stayed locked. As I looked around, I could see that the furniture was all covered with old yellowing sheets. Dust lined the solid surfaces of the shelves on the far wall and a bit of spider web could be seen dangling from the ceiling in the corner. Obviously, this room wasn't used often.

"What is this room for?," I asked him.

"This was my mother's reading room", he said, moving to the fireplace to poke at a few dying embers.

I was shocked. After all the time that I had been at Thorn Manor, not once had any of the family spoken of the missing mother. I had kind of assumed she had left or maybe that there had been a few queens in times past.

"What happened to her?", I asked him.

He sighed a bit, stalling a bit by poking the embers before answering.

"She died a few years back", he said, turning to me and then adding "witches".

"Oh", was all I could think to say. I wanted to press further, but was unsure of how he would react. I didn't want him to run off again. I was relieved when he came and stood beside me, pulling off a sheet to reveal a small burgundy love seat for us to sit on. When we both took a seat he said.

"She was working with Isobel, back in the day. She wanted to make a treaty, so the witches would take away the curse and we all could live in peace. When Isobel died, the other witches weren't so thrilled to be working with a vampire. They thought that Isobel might have told her where she hid the Voodoo Bell, so they tortured her, trying to get the information."

"Oh, Reed!", I exclaimed wanting to put my arms around him, comfort him for the pain that I could see lingering in his eyes, but he shook his head, breaking the spell of sadness.

"She never told them. So, they killed her". He finished in a cold and unfeeling voice.

"Did she know where it was?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I think she did", he said, after a moment. "So, my father in his grief, hid all of her things and sealed off the rooms that she loved the most. We never use them now", he said, motioning around at the apparent disuse of the place that we now sat.